Presence information transmitted in wireless messaging systems and methods

ABSTRACT

A messaging system for selectively performing an action on information, for remote retrieval of messages, for performing action on information at different times, for selective paging, for providing a user interface for message access and having integrated audio visual messaging.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/973,722, filed Dec. 20, 2010 (pending), which is a division of U.S.application Ser. No. 11/598,202, filed Nov. 13, 2006 (now U.S. Pat. No.8,107,601), which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/445,257, filed May 27, 2003 (status: Abandoned), which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/540,490, filed Mar. 31,2000 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,636,733), and which is a continuation-in-partof U.S. application Ser. No. 09/408,841, filed Sep. 30, 1999 (now U.S.Pat. No. 6,826,407), which claims the benefit of U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/155,055, filed Sep. 21, 1999 and U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/126,939, filed Mar. 29, 1999; U.S. Patent applicationSer. No. 09/540,490 is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. applicationSer. No. 08/934,143, filed Sep. 19, 1997 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,430),U.S. application Ser. No. 08/933,344, filed Sep. 19, 1997 (now U.S. Pat.No. 6,253,061), U.S. application Ser. No. 08/934,132, filed Sep. 19,1997 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,956), U.S. application Ser. No.08/934,337, filed Sep. 19, 1997 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,892), and U.S.application Ser. No. 08/989,874, filed Dec. 12, 1997 (now U.S. Pat. No.6,097,941). All of the above mentioned applications (provisional andnon-provisional) are incorporated in their entirety herein by thisreference.

Reference is made to the following co-pending and patented patentapplications: (1) Ser. No. 13/985,226 (pending); (2) Ser. No. 13/763,970(now U.S. Pat. No. 8,560,006); (3) Ser. No. 13/210,223 (now U.S. Pat.No. 8,498,387); (4) Ser. No. 09/513,998 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,983,138);(5) Ser. No. 09/688,282 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,039,428); (6) Ser. No.09/860,954 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,462,646); (7) Ser. No. 10/236,932 (nowU.S. Pat. No. 6,696,921); (8) Ser. No. 09/688,321 (now U.S. Pat. No.7,003,304); (9) Ser. No. 09/613,345 (now U.S. Pat. No. 6,459,360); (10)Ser. No. 11/049,869 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,277,716); (11) Ser. No.11/050,775 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,155,241); (12) Ser. No. 11/082,913 (nowU.S. Pat. No. 7,280,838); (13) Ser. No. 11/081,611 (now U.S. Pat. No.7,376,432); (14) Ser. No. 11/082,872 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,242,951); (15)Ser. No. 11/083,897 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,403,787); (16) Ser. No.11/635,781 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,843,314); (17) Ser. No. 12/367,358 (nowU.S. Pat. No. 8,134,450); (18) Ser. No. 12/580,189 (now U.S. Pat. No.8,224,294); (19) Ser. No. 12/764,025 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,835,757); (20)Ser. No. 13/109,389 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,355,702); (21) Ser. No.11/108,759 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,146,157); (22) Ser. No. 11/399,513 (nowU.S. Pat. No. 7,499,716); (23) Ser. No. 11/105,441 (now U.S. Pat. No.7,627,305); (24) Ser. No. 12/625,357 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,957,695); (25)Ser. No. 10/958,731 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,099,046); (26) Ser. No.12/167,971 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,116,741); (27) Ser. No. 11/598,832 (nowU.S. Pat. No. 8,116,743); (28) Ser. No. 12/267,436 (now U.S. Pat. No.8,295,450); (29) Ser. No. 13/109,437 (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,374,585); (30)Ser. No. 14/225,727 (pending); and (31) Ser. No. 14/295,162 (pending).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to wireless messaging devices such astwo-way pagers, wireless telephones and personal digital assistants(PDA's) and, electronic media systems such as, electronic mail systems,electronic commerce systems and storage and retrieval systems. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to two-way wireless emaildevices and associated systems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to provide a messaging system forselectively performing an action on information, for remote retrieval ofmessages, for performing action on information at different times, forselective paging, for providing a user interface for message access andhaving integrated audio visual messaging.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method and system forwireless retrieval of an email attachment such as an audio or videofile.

Another object of the invention is to provide a system for allowing awireless device to retrieve a portion of or an entire email from one ora plurality of email systems.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide direct access toone specific or a plurality of specific email messages without having toretrieve or access other email messages.

Another object of the invention is to provide a messaging system thatdelivers messages or message notifications to a specific device, basedon a variable such as: the “presence” of the user (i.e., whether theuser has turned on his/her device), the location of the device, thedevice being accessed, the importance level of the message, the type ofmessage, the time or date, the weather, a user action, or a userrequest.

It is still another object of the invention to provide automaticidentification of a wireless mobile phone user or wireless email deviceand a mobile phone user's reply email message destination by utilizing aphone number or code.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide an improved methodfor memory management in a messaging device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings and above identified pending patentapplications, which are incorporated herein, form a part of thisspecification together with this description and serve to explain theprinciples of the invention and to enable a person skilled in thepertinent art to make and use the invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wireless messaging system.

FIGS. 2A and 2B is a flowchart illustrating a process of replying to amessage.

FIG. 3 depicts routing a message to a computer.

FIG. 4 depicts routing a message to a mobile phone.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

For the purpose of illustration only, a wireless mobile telephone willbe used as an exemplary wireless messaging device. However, it should beunderstood that other messaging devices, such as pagers, wireless PDA'sand the like, are also contemplated.

A wireless mobile telephone, hereinafter mobile phone, is configured toreceive text messages and message alerts. The mobile phone may beconfigured to receive Short Messaging Service (SMS) email messages orthe mobile phone may have a Web Browser for accessing an Internet basedemail service. An email server receives an email message intended for aspecific mobile telephone. An email message includes a message body anda message header. The message header usually includes various fields,such as a To field, a From field, and a Subject field. The messageheader also may include a Message Type field and other informationcommon in email messages.

The email server assigns a message identifier (ID) to the message and,in one embodiment, forwards the entire message and the message ID to amobile system for transmission to the targeted mobile phone.Alternatively, the email server may send to the mobile system just analert, the. From field, and/or the Subject field, but not the entiremessage. Depending on what was transmitted to the mobile system, themobile phone user may read the entire message, read whom the message wasfrom, read the message subject or read the message ID.

Whether the entire message or just part of the message header wastransmitted to the mobile phone, the mobile phone user may choose toreply to the message. To reply to the message, the user may simply pressa button to automatically transmit to the mobile system information thatidentifies the mobile phone user and the message to which the user isreplying. The mobile phone user may be identified by the mobile phone'smobile identification number (MIN) or by data associated with thereceived message, such as the message ID described above. Similarly, themessage to which the user is replying may be identified by the messageID. In one embodiment, the message ID is a reply code (i.e., a shortstring of letters and/or numbers, such as 1234). Alternatively, themessage ID is a telephone number (or pseudo telephone number) that isassociated with a message processing system. For example, the emailserver may assign a callback telephone number to a specific message.Upon receiving the message and callback number, the mobile phone usermay simply activate the reply mode causing the callback number to betransmitted for identifying the mobile phone user and or the specificmessage being replied to.

FIG. 1 illustrates the messaging system 100 described above and FIGS. 2Aand 2B illustrate the steps performed by the components of system 100when a mobile phone 10 user replies to an email message with a voicemessage. First, the email server 16 receives the email message from theInternet 20 or from another source (step 202). The email server 16stores the message (308 and 408) and assigns a message identifier (ID)to the email message (step 204). The message ID may take any number offorms as previously described but for the purpose of example, the emailserver assigns to the message a telephone callback number (e.g.,202-555-1212) or pseudo telephone number (e.g., #71 or #112).

Next, the email server 16 determines whether it should send to themobile phone 10 the entire email message or just part of the message(for example, one or more fields of the message header) (step 206). Thisdetermination can be based on a user profile that is stored at the emailserver 16, or maybe specified by the user for one or a particular groupof email messages. Thus, some users may create a profile that specifiesthat they want to receive the entire message, whereas other users canspecify that they don't want to receive the entire message and canspecify which portions of the message they do want to receive. If theentire message should be sent, then the entire message plus the callbacknumber generated in step 204 is forwarded to the mobile system 14 (step208). If the entire message should not be sent, then the email server 16forwards, at the least, the callback number generated in step -204 tothe mobile system 14 (step 210). The mobile system 14 comprises amessage center, a call switching center, and transceiver circuitrynecessary for transmitting information to the antenna 12 and the mobilephone 10. The mobile system 14 then transmits to the mobile phone 10 theinformation forwarded by the email server 16 (step 212).

Upon receiving at the mobile phone 10 the information forwarded by theemail server 16, which at the least includes a callback number, the usermay choose to send a reply message to the originator of the emailmessage (step 214). The user can accomplish this by activating a replycommand. Upon activating the reply command, the mobile phoneautomatically places a call to the callback number. Alternatively,instead of activating the reply command, the user may manually call thecallback number by entering the callback number using a keypad on themobile phone 10, or by speaking the callback number into the receiver ofthe mobile phone 10.

In one embodiment, all of the callback numbers generated by the emailserver are associated with message processor 18, thus upon placing thecall to the callback number, the mobile system 14 routes the call to themessage processor 18, which then answers the call. The message processor18 may comprise a voice store and forward system for receiving voice andforwarding voice messages. Voice store and forward systems are readilyavailable and are commonly configured to communicate with networkedsystems such as the email server 16. The email server 16 communicateswith the message processor 18 for establishing a temporary mailboxassociated with a specific callback number, which was assigned to amessage.

When the message processor 18 receives a call directed to a specificcallback number, the message processor 18 prompts the mobile phone userto dictate a reply message for the specific recipient identified byheader information contained in the original message (step 216). Themessage processor 18 records the voice reply message, notifies the emailserver 16 of the voice message, and provides the email server with thecallback telephone number that the user dialed (or that the mobile phone10 automatically dialed in response to the user activating the replycommand) (step 218).

The email server 16 uses the callback telephone number to retrieve theemail message associated therewith (step 220). The email server 16 thentransmits to the originator of the email message associated with thecallback telephone number at least the voice message recorded by themessage processor 18 (step 222). In one embodiment, only the voicemessage is transmitted, in other embodiments, the voice message plus theemail message associated with the callback number are transmitted.

The message processor 18 may be replaced with another type of processordepending on the media type. For example, instead of utilizing a voicemessage processor, a video message processor may be utilized in abroadband system for sending video messages from a mobile phone.

Messages sent from the email server may be transported over the Internet20 or a private network. The mobile system 14, email system 16 andmessage processor 18 may be directly connected or they may be connectedvia a network such as the Internet or the public switched telephonenetwork.

As described above, a mobile phone user may reply to messages that werenot transmitted in their entirety to the mobile phone 10. In oneembodiment, a mobile phone user might receive only a name foridentifying the message originator and/or a subject but not the body ofthe message. Such would be the case in a system that allows the mobilephone user to decide which messages should be transmitted. In the casewhere the user does not receive the entire message, the mobile phoneuser could reply to the originator of the message stating, “I willattend to your message when I return to the office.” Optionally, themobile phone user could read the subject matter and then send a requestmessage to the email server 16, which causes the email server totransmit the entire message or the remainder of the message. Lastly, amobile phone 10 equipped with a web browser may connect to an Internetbased mail system for reading messages. A reply code, callback number ormessage code may be embedded in the internet mail based message, therebyenabling a mobile phone user to reply to a specific message as describedabove.

A significant feature of the -present invention described above is theability to “directly access” a specific message from the mobile phone 10for replying to or for performing an action thereon. Each messagetransmitted to or accessed from the mobile phone 10 has a message IDassociated therewith. A mobile phone user (for example) may reply to amessage, delete a message from the email server 16 without retrievingthe entire message, forward a message and retrieve a message. The usermay also mistakenly delete a message stored in the mobile phone 10 andthen retrieve it again from the email server 16. Unlike prior art emailand voice mail systems, the present invention provides for direct accessof remotely stored messages for retrieval and for performing an actionassociated therewith, as is described in the above mentioned relatedU.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 08/934,143, 08/933,344, 08/934,132,and 08/934,337.

The invention of FIG. 1 is shown configured with one email server 16 andone message processor 18. However, multiple email servers 16 and ormessage processors 18 may be configured in the system, for example, vianetwork connection, direct connect, or the Internet. This approach, whenused in conjunction with the email industry standard POP3 mail, allowsthe mobile phone user to access email from a plurality of email systems.

Any email server 16 may send message alerts, header information, messagecodes, subject matter, or the body of a message to the mobile system 14for transmission to the mobile phone 10. Alternatively, the email server16 and or the message processor 18 (shown in FIG. 1) may act as a mastersystem for commutating with the mobile system 14 and slave email servers16 and or slave message processors 18 may be configured to communicatewith the master email server 16 and or a master voice processor 18 forcommunicating with the mobile phone 10.

As previously stated, a mobile phone user may receive any part of themessage or the entire message. While some mobile phone users may decideto have the system alert them and automatically deliver the entiremessage, other mobile phone users (power users) may wish to be alertedand automatically receive only the sender's name and the subject of theemail message. The mobile phone user may then decide to retrieve themessage, delete the message, forward the message or reply to themessage. The present invention provides the mobile phone user directaccess to and remote control of email messages regardless of where theemail messages reside.

The mobile phone 10 can originate email messages by utilizing an addressbook or by direct entry of an address or an abbreviated address. Theaddress book may be stored in the mobile phone 10, on the email server16 or in the message processor 18. The mobile phone user may simplyselect a name from the mobile phone's 10 address book, activate a sendmessage command and send a message to the message processor 18 fordelivery to the email server 16 and finally to the addressed destinationas previously described.

In another embodiment, the mobile phone user may enter the addressmanually or enter an abbreviated address associated with the actualaddress stored on the email server 16 and or the message processor 18.In another embodiment, the mobile phone user may utilize a mobile phone10 that has Internet access capability such as the so-called “smartphones”. Upon accessing the Internet, the mobile phone user may accessan Internet based email system such as Hot Mail, Yahoo Mail and thelike. The Mobile phone user may then choose a message to read, reply toa message or select a name from an address book for originating amessage. The user then selects a send command for sending a message(digital, analog, or other) to the Internet based email system or theemail server 16. The selected address book entry may contain addressinginformation for identifying a particular email server or messageprocessor. Upon the mobile phone user's selection of a messagerecipient, the mobile phone 10 connects to the identified email server16, message processor 18, or another system for delivering the emailmessage. An email message may also be routed to a particular systembased on the type of email message For example, a voice message may bedirected to a voice message processor and a text message may be directedto an email server. The mobile phone 10 may connect to the Internet forsending a- message or a phone call may be placed to the messageprocessor 18. Alternatively, a mobile phone user may indicate to anemail server that he/she wishes to send a message, such as a voicemessage, to a particular destination. The email server then informs themessage processor 18 that the specific mobile phone user wishes to senda message. The message processor then places a call (or connects) to themobile phone 10 and prompts the mobile phone user to record a message aspreviously described.

The present invention provides for receiving an email message that hasan attachment (i.e., an attached file). The mobile phone 10 does notneed any special modifications to receive a text message and for examplea voice attachment (i.e., the attached file contains a voice message).When a mobile phone 10 receives a text message having an attachmentassociated therewith, the mobile phone user may receive all or a portionof the text message, header information, an alert, and a message codewhich identifies the attachment. To hear the voice message attachment,delete the voice message, reply to the originator of the voice message,or forward the voice message to other people, the mobile phone usersimply places a call to the message processor 18, enters the messagecode that identifies the attachment using a keypad (or if the messageprocessor 18 has voice recognition capability, simply speaks the messagecode), and enters a code corresponding to an action or speaks a command,such as reply, delete, forward, save, etc. The message processor 18performs the command.

That is, the message processor 18, upon receiving a call from a mobilephone user, may be configured to identify the mobile phone userutilizing the industry standard caller ID. After identifying the mobilephone user, the message processor prompts the mobile phone user to enterthe message code associated with the received message for retrieving thecorresponding voice attachment. The voice message file corresponding tothe message code is then accessed by the message processor 18. Themessage processor 18 then plays the message to the mobile phone userover the telephone connection so that the mobile phone user can hear theattachment.

In this manner, unlike prior art voice mail systems, the presentinvention provides direct access to a specific message. The mobile phoneuser need not scroll through a large number of messages in order tolocate a specific message.

Upon accessing a message file, the message processor 18 allows the userto erase the message, forward the message, or record a reply for thevoice message originator. In another embodiment, the mobile telephonemay be configured to automatically transmit a message code to a specificmessage processor as previously described. The main difference between amessage code for retrieving a voice attachment and a reply code is thata message code for retrieving a message directs the message processor toplay the message while a reply code directs the message processor 18 torecord a reply message.

Voice attachments may be retrieved manually by entering a message codeor automatically. The mobile phone user may place a call directly to aspecific message processor 18 or the call may be automatically directedto a specific message processor that corresponds to a received systemidentification code or the call may be directed to a specific telephonenumber associated to the mailbox within the message processor 18 where aspecific message resides.

The mobile phone user may additionally access a voice message byaccessing a web based email system with a browser-enabled mobile phone10. The web based email server may supply the message code and upon amobile phone user activating a retrieve command, the mobile phone 18places a call to a message processor 18. Alternatively, the web basedemail server may notify the message processor 18 and the messageprocessor 18 then connects with (or calls) the mobile phone 10 and playsthe message to the mobile phone user. The message processor 18 isadapted to play an analog voice file or a digital voice file. The voicemessage may be streamed to the mobile phone 10 for real timereproduction or the voice file may be transferred to the mobile phone 10for storage in a memory device within the mobile phone 10. The messageis not limited to an analog or digital voice message buy may includestreaming video or other multimedia content.

It has been clearly shown that an email text message and an attachmentmay be received or retrieved by the mobile phone 10. Email messages maybe sent to the mobile phone 10 from a number of devices such as forexample, a computer with Internet access to a web based email system orfrom a computer utilizing an email program. The present inventionadditionally provides for sending email messages from a mobile phone 10to another mobile phone 10 (i.e. mobile-to-mobile) or to itself (i.e.memo mode). A mobile originated voice message may be recorded andaddressed by a mobile phone user to a targeted mobile phone 10. Thedifference between sending a message to a computer or to a mobile phone10 is simply the address. The present invention makes it possible tocommunicate two-way email, including attachments between a computer anda mobile phone and between mobile phones. Mobile phone users need notscroll through messages to access a specific message. Messages may bedirectly accessed for performing an action thereto. A mobile phone usermay simply select a destination address, activate a send message commandand record a voice email for any targeted destination. A mobile phoneuser may activate a reply command and record a voice email that isautomatically or manually addressed to a message originator. Messagesmay be automatically received, manually retrieved, replied to,forwarded, deleted, originated and reproduced by the mobile phone 10.The need for a mobile phone to have browser capability for accessing theInternet to communicate two-way email is eliminated.

As previously stated, the present invention may be configured to deliverentire text email messages to a mobile phone 10 or just a portion of themessage, such as the name of the originator and/or the subject.Additionally, a message may be received from the email server 16 ondemand by the mobile phone 10. A mobile phone user may automaticallyreceive a name and subject information but may not wish to automaticallyreceive the entire message. After the mobile user reviews the receivednames and associated subjects, the mobile phone user may decide toretrieve the remainder of the message or the entire message.

A message may be deleted from the mobile phone 10 but it may be againretrieved from the email server 10, if the message is still stored onthe email server 10 as previously described. The ability to retrieve aspecific message on demand allows for new and improved features for themobile phone 10, a paging device or other types of wireless email andmessaging devices.

One such feature of the present invention is an improved memorymanagement arrangement and method for automatically deleting messagesstored in a mobile phone or messaging device when the device's memory isfull. For example, prior art paging devices have a limited amount ofmemory for storing messages. There are times when the memory is full ofmessages and new messages cannot be received and stored. Other pagingdevices automatically delete the oldest read message in order to makeroom in memory for a newly received message. These prior art devices andmethods have a disadvantage because once a message is deleted or overwritten, it cannot be recovered. The present invention provides a systemfor deleting messages when memory is full but the deleted or overwritten messages may be again received and stored by the mobiletelephone 10 as will be described hereinafter.

The mobile phone 10 may be configured so that an internal processorexecutes the following process: Receive and store messages in memory.When a message is received and memory is full, over write one or moremessage bodies, but retain the message header and the message IDassociated with the message, to make room for the new message. Store thenew message. When over writing message bodies, over write the oldestread message body first, when there are no read message bodies left,over write the oldest unread message body. When there are no moremessage bodies, over write the oldest read subject first. When there areno more read subjects, over write the oldest unread subject. The mobilephone 10 may be configured to delete the name and header informationusing the same priority as described above.

The above-described process causes the mobile phone 10 to over writeonly message bodies when there is not enough memory to store anadditional message. The mobile phone user may continue to save and viewinformation that identifies the message originator (the name) andinformation describing the message (the subject). If the mobile phoneuser desires to read an entire message body that was deleted or overwritten, a retrieve command may be activated by the mobile phone userfor causing the mobile phone 10 to transmit the selected message ID tothe email server 16. Upon receiving the retrieval request and messageID, the email server 16 sends the email message corresponding to themessage ID to the requesting mobile phone 10. An over written or deletedmessage can now be recovered.

The present invention provides for sending and receiving messages basedon one or more variables. The email server 16 and the message processor18 may be configured with Instant Messenger software such as is providedby Microsoft, America On Line, AT&T and others. These programs providenotification when a computer-messaging device is on line or the operatoris logged in (406). When the message processor 18 or email server 16receives a message for the mobile phone 10, the message may be helduntil the mobile phone is on line. In other words, when the user islogged in or when the presence of the user is detected, the message isdelivered. Conversely, when a message is sent to a mobile phone 10, themessage may be held by the email server 16 or the message processor 18until the presence of the mobile phone 10 or the mobile phone user isdetected. Detection of the mobile phone 10 may for example beaccomplished by interfacing a home location register (HLR) to the emailserver 16 and the message processor 18 (304). HLR equipment is readilyavailable and used extensively by mobile phone companies to providedetection of a mobile phone in a particular service area in order toroute calls. Detection of a mobile phone user may also be accomplishedby detecting user-activated commands that are transmitted to the emailserver 16 or the message processor 18 (304). Detection of an operator,mobile phone user or active messaging device enables the presentinvention to perform actions responsive to the status of messagingdevices or the presence of their respective user (404). The email server16 may automatically route messages to a mobile phone 10 when the mobilephone user is utilizing the mobile phone 10 (412). Then, when the mobilephone user turns the mobile phone 10 off and logs in to an officecomputer, the email server routes messages to the office computer. Thepresent invention may perform any number of actions or combination ofactions based on a mobile phone user activated command or byautomatically detecting the status of the mobile phone 10 and or thepresence of the mobile phone user (310 and 410). Messages may even beredirected automatically to a mobile phone user's computer email serviceif the message cannot be delivered to the mobile phone 10 because themobile phone 10 was out of range or turned off (312).

The email server 16 and the message processor 18 may automaticallyperform an action or sequence of actions based on the time of day, thedate, the status of a mobile phone 10, the presence of a user, useractivity, geographic location of the mobile phone 10 or any number ofconditions which may be transmitted to the email server 16 or themessage processor 18. Sensors may be added to the mobile phone 10 anddata from the sensors may be automatically transmitted or manually sentby the mobile phone user. A temperature sensor, for example, may beincluded in the mobile phone 10 wherein temperature readings areautomatically transmitted to the email server 16. Based on temperature,the location of the mobile phone 10 and the presence of the mobile phoneuser, the email server 16 or the message processor may for example sendan email message to the mobile phone user that includes an advertisementstating, “The temperature is 98 degrees. Please drink Coke. 35 centspecial one block away at the super store.” Alternatively, the mobilephone user may configure the present invention so that messages fromparticular people are delivered to the mobile phone 10 on week daysbetween 9:00 am and 5:00 pm but otherwise routed to the mobile phoneuser's home computer and have copies of all message activity go to anoffice email system. Messages may also be filtered based on the locationof the mobile phone 10 so that very important messages are routed to themobile phone 10 when the mobile phone user is out of town with themobile phone 10. A mobile phone user may also configure the system (302)to send a notification message to the mobile phone 10 when anothermobile phone 10 user or a computer device user is detected by the emailserver 16 or the message processor 18 (306 and 406).

The present invention may be utilized in telephone systems, pagingsystems, email systems, and numerous communications systems.

1-104. (canceled)
 105. A method, using a message server connected to amessage processor, that reports presence of a wired computer online asan active messaging device to a first cell phone and redirects aninstant message (“IM”) to a second cell phone associated with the userof the wired computer comprising: (a) the message processor detectingthe presence of the wired computer online as an active messaging device;(b) the message processor generating a signal indicating that the wiredcomputer was detected online as an active messaging device; (c) themessage processor using the signal to report to the first cell phonethat the wired computer was detected online as an active messagingdevice; (d) the message processor receiving from the first cell phoneand storing on the message server an IM addressed for delivery to thewired computer; (e) the message processor, prior to delivering the IM tothe wired computer, detecting that a second cell phone associated withthe user of the wired computer has become an active messaging device;and (f) the message processor automatically redirecting the IM stored onthe message server to the second cell phone associated with the user ofthe wired computer.
 106. The method of claim 105 wherein detecting thepresence of the wired computer online comprises detecting that the wiredcomputer signed into an internet messaging service.
 107. The method ofclaim 105 further comprising the wired computer enabling a setting thatallows the presence of the wired computer online to be detected by thecell phone.
 108. The method of claim 105 further comprising sending amessage between the wired computer and the cell phone upon detecting thepresence of the wired computer online.
 109. The method of claim 108further comprising sending the message at the request of the cell phone.110. The method of claim 108 wherein the message comprises multimediainformation.